Before You Start

Flash

For instructions on how to install the Flash plugin, see the Flash section on the Restricted Formats page.

Java

For instructions on how to install the Java plugin for Firefox, see Java.

Adobe Reader

For instructions on how to install Adobe Reader plugin for Firefox, see the Adobe Reader wiki page.

Real Player

For instructions on how to install the Real Player plugin for Firefox, see the RealPlayer page.

Totem Plugin

Totem, Ubuntu's default video player, supports both the gstreamer (default) and xine multimedia frameworks.

  • On 6.06 LTS (Dapper), the plugin depends on the multimedia framework you use. If you use totem-gstreamer (the version of Totem that uses the gstreamer back-end), install the totem-gstreamer-firefox-plugin package. If you use totem-xine, you should install the totem-xine-firefox-plugin package.

  • On 6.10 (Edgy), simply install the totem-mozilla package.

Note: The current version of the Totem plugin that handles real media files is not functional. To make RealPlayer take over the handling of real media files, follow the instructions in the RealPlayer and Firefox 2 section on the RealPlayer wiki page.

MPlayer Plugin

The MPlayer media player is not installed by default on Ubuntu Linux. For 6.06 LTS (Dapper) and 6.10 (Edgy), simply install the mplayer package from the multiverse repositories. For users of 5.10 (Breezy) and earlier, see MPlayer for Breezy. Once you have set up and configured mplayer, add the plugin to Firefox by installing the mozilla-mplayer package.

Note: If your country's laws allow you to use w32codecs, installing that package is highly recommended. See the w32codecs section on the Restricted Formats wiki page for details.

How do I install other plugins?

See the wiki page for the media player you are interested in. The Restricted Formats wiki page offers a comprehensive discussion of proprietary multimedia file formats on (K)Ubuntu Linux. General information about installing other browser plugins is available at PluginDoc for Linux (x86).

Troubleshooting

  • How can I check which plugins are currently installed? - How can I verify that plugin x for Firefox is properly installed?

    • Enter about:plugins into the Firefox adress bar. You should now see a list of installed plugins along with some additional information (the plugin's file name, a brief description of its functionality and the associated MIME types).

  • The plugins page only shows me the name of the plugin. How can I make it show the plugin's location in the file system?

    • Enter about:config into the Firefox address bar. You will see a large list of configurable options for the Firefox browser. In the search bar, search for an entry named plugin.expose_full_path and set its value to true. Enter about:plugins into the browser adress bar. You should now see a list of installed plugins along with some additional information and their locations in the file system.

See also

Mozilla Plugin Support on Linux x86 and x86-64 platforms

Firefox distribution notes, Ubuntu Linux (x86)

The Restricted Formats wiki page

Multimedia Applications on Ubuntu Linux

RealPlayer wiki page

MPlayer wiki page

Installing Free Java or Sun Java on Ubuntu Linux

MozillaZine Knowledge Base: Changing Media Handling Behaviour

A multimedia MIME type reference


CategoryInternet

FirefoxPlugins (last edited 2011-05-30 12:30:28 by 193)